Project CAELUS has the potential to revolutionise the delivery of healthcare services in Scotland. With approximately 26% of the population living in 69% rural landmass, service delivery can encounter constraints contributing to treatment inequity. Project CAELUS addresses this by using drones to deliver items such as blood, lab results, or chemotherapy. Through live and digital flight demonstrations, CAELUS is proving that a network of multiple drones can integrate safely with existing flight operations, addressing regulatory needs and social acceptance issues.

In addition to developing the ground infrastructure needed to recharge the drones and the systems to control them while flying, a key aspect is designing pathways to ensure the drones can safely share airspace with civil aviation. The project also considers critical aspects such as public safety, security, and noise levels. In October 2023, it took a significant step forward by conducting live flight trials between Glasgow Airport and NHS Golden Jubilee in Clydebank. This culminated months of hard work within the consortium and working with the Civil Aviation Authority. The first beyond the visual line of sight project allowed Project CAELUS to schedule four more live flight trials to take place in 2024 across Scotland. These trials are crucial steps towards integrating drones into modern airspace and enabling the safe use of drones at scale within Scotland’s airspace.

Current road-based systems have an annual fuel consumption of over 1 million miles. A drone-based network would reduce mileage and offer significant time-saving opportunities, improving patient experience and outcomes. For instance, it could reduce sample-to-laboratory time, improve clinician decisions such as selecting targeted antibiotics, and reduce identification and delivery time for cross-matched blood products.

Edinburgh has collaborated with Jacobs to develop a method for reallocating street space, known as ‘Our Future Streets’, tailored to Edinburgh’s needs in the city centre, transport corridors, and neighbourhoods. This framework aims to deliver more equitable and rational space allocations for placemaking, blue-green infrastructure, sustainable travel, and general traffic, ensuring that project decisions contribute to fully integrated networks in the future. The key outcome is a coordinated and transparent approach to allocating street space across the city network.

Adopting this integrated approach has facilitated the preparation of a fully integrated network map for the city. For the first time, this map overlays the walking, cycling, public transport, and general traffic networks and allocates physical space between them to optimise the level of service for each mode. Consequently, a space allocation framework has been established to guide the design development of each street, ensuring that each project is fully aligned at a strategic level.

Importantly, the processes agreed upon in ‘Our Future Streets’ are transparent for the public, stakeholders, and all users of Edinburgh’s streets now and in the future. The team will continue encouraging stakeholder input as the framework is applied to delivery projects. This framework is a valuable tool to guide strategic decision-making, rather than decision-making at the project or street-specific level, which often results in fragmented sustainable travel networks or conflicting interventions.

The Workforce Mobility Project, part of the Edinburgh & South East Scotland City Region Deal, is the first of its kind within a regional growth deal that aims to identify and support sustainable long-term solutions, influence policy and behaviour change to enable the reduction of transport barriers to employment, training, and further education. Workstreams include:

1. Development of the Postcode Analysis and Business Accessibility tools, which utilise bulk uploads of anonymised employee postcode data and employer locations to map potential sustainable journeys between work and home.

2. Engagement with employers and local authorities to collect postcode data and provide support for data analysis. The data is then analysed using the Postcode Analysis and Business Accessibility Tools to support and incentivise sustainable and active travel for employees.

3. Development of Data-Driven Pilot Projects with Local Authorities. The project utilises collected postcode data and transport operator data to identify areas of unmet demand and key travel corridors.

The first iteration of the web-based version of the Post Code Analysis tool was completed at the end of 2023. The development of the first iteration of the Business Accessibility Tool will commence in 2024. From 2022 – 2023, the project has engaged with 117 businesses in The Scottish Borders and received employee postcode data from 40 of them. The analysis of this data was used for the Berwickshire Demand Responsive Transport Project. The project mapped the postcode locations of those under 22 in Berwickshire who have the ability to access free bus travel but live out with the fixed route bus network zones. This data, combined with other travel demand data, built the business case for Scottish Borders Council to invest in a Demand Responsive Transport (DRT) pilot in the area to test the concept in a remote rural area with high transport poverty. The pilot is currently still running. The project also engaged with 73 employers in East Lothian and received data from 57. This data was used to identify key routes and journeys in the region. These insights have been used to inform a comprehensive study on developing journey hubs and supporting active travel connections. In 2023, data for 3521 Edinburgh Council Employees was analysed by the project, with the output of this analysis being the available sustainable journeys for those employees between work and home.

Following the introduction of the U22 Scheme, First Bus initiated a campaign titled ‘Free to Explore’, promoting bus travel to young people to establish it as an appealing and credible option. First’s research into GenZ revealed that young people, especially those who walk or cycle, associate buses with freedom and independence but find the bus system daunting. They fear not ‘getting it right’, looking foolish, and are reluctant to seek assistance.

First decided to produce a music video doubling as an ad, informed by the insights work. Drawing from the Scottish grime scene, including a bespoke rap and a diverse cast representing the target audience, the campaign emphasised inclusivity and diversity. First aligned with the target audience’s motivations by showcasing how the scheme empowered young people to express themselves and explore.

Media platforms such as Instagram, Snapchat, and TikTok, which over 55% of young people visit daily, were central to the campaign. Additionally, two bespoke murals by a local artist were commissioned in Glasgow and Aberdeen, positioned as ‘hot new selfie spots’ to drive further engagement.

High performance of media and PR metrics indicated that the concept resonated with the target demographic: 15 pieces of national and regional coverage, 755,800 audience reach from influencer partnerships, 122,502 coverage views, and 34,446 print reach, among others.

The scheme’s impact included a 2.7% increase in NEC usage in Scotland, a 2.67% growth in the share of weekly passengers attributed to the scheme, and a 5.5% revenue increase. Furthermore, First Bus saw an improvement in brand perception, moving from position 37 to 6 among transport brands.

The campaign received positive feedback, 76% of the target audience viewed it favourably. Social media platforms exceeded forecasted results, with TikTok and Snapchat’s performance surpassing expectations by 679% and 795%, respectively.

Overall, the campaign proved bold and successful, potentially opening doors to a captive youth market for First Bus in the future.

Glasgow has implemented a notable example of meaningful youth engagement by involving children in a serious road safety scheme through fun and innovation. The city’s latest STARS project combines the largest ‘School Streets’ programme in Scotland with the largest school film project in the UK. This School Streets pilot programme limits traffic in streets surrounding schools at key times, creating a predominantly car-free zone. Alongside these physical measures, the STARS project provides schools with a choice of road safety services, including road safety skills for life talks, kerb craft training, and on-road cycle training.

In 2022/23, the STARS film element was introduced, giving Junior Road Safety Officers the chance to produce a short film to highlight poor road user behaviour outside the school gates. The film’s success on social media led to its inclusion in the Curriculum for Excellence (CfE), with a STARS film pack available to support the scheme. This allows every school in the city to address and highlight road safety issues in their area.

Initial evaluation showed:

– Young people and teachers really enjoyed the project and felt they had been a part of something special.
– The project allowed pupils to explore the road safety challenges, risks, and opportunities to improve safety within their own local context, enabling them to understand what road safety means for them.
– The project connected well with curricular priorities, with teachers especially valuing the opportunity to engage in an ICT project that focused on ‘real-life’ challenges.
– The project allowed the road safety team to build and strengthen connections with schools in areas of higher deprivation, some of which have traditionally not been as actively involved in road safety initiatives, despite being schools where road safety outcomes could often be most improved.

In 2022/23, 45 schools and 300 pupils/teachers participated in the STARS film project. Social media outreach reached over 50,000 people within the school community who were able to view the films. This initiative demonstrates how a unique and exciting development can enthuse and encourage young people to learn about school travel and road safety and effectively communicate their message to the wider community.

Glenfarg Community Transport Group (GCTG), a Scottish Charity established by the Community Council, operates the 55 Bus Service in a Public Social Partnership with Perth and Kinross Council. This hourly service runs six days per week, eleven times daily in each direction, initially between Glenfarg and Kinross, and has since been extended to Perth. GCTG conducted community consultations to understand the necessary changes to encourage modal shifts and bus usage over car journeys. The consultations revealed that many community members lacked transport to neighbouring towns, resulting in severe disadvantages. In response, GCTG designed a Demand Responsive Travel system based on a combination of a fixed route with flexible deviations, or “wiggles,” to serve areas of the community not previously served and to assist members with mobility issues in reaching bus stops.

Sixteen-seat minibuses are utilised, and the service operates with a telephone booking line, which has progressed to using the MooveFlexi/Liftango App. In phase 1, GCTG aimed to double the number of passenger journeys delivered by predecessors (120), achieved within three months (250). By the end of 2023, passenger numbers reached in excess of 400. In phase two, the target was to double the numbers to 800 by the end of the current pilot in June. After only a month of operation, they reached 750 weekly passenger journeys. GCTG is one of the first communities in Scotland to deliver this scale of service as a not-for-profit Community Transport group.

The final product will provide a connected local bus service that interfaces with mainline bus services at Kinross Park and Ride, significantly improving connectivity levels. The patronage numbers are impressive, and there will undoubtedly be major social value improvements that are challenging to quantify. This showcases hugely impressive efforts by GCTG.

SOAST (Suburban-fringe ‘on-demand’ algorithm-based shared transport) is a research project developed by Prof Phil Greening, Prof David Corne, and Assoc Prof Rod Macdonald at Heriot Watt University. It aims to analyse the viability of Demand-Responsive Transport (DRT) from any postcode to any other postcode in a low—to medium-density region. The project integrates people mobility with parcel delivery and includes last-mile delivery from locker stations to front doors.

SOAST has completed the current stage of UKCRIC research into the viability of combining DRT for people with parcel delivery in rural and less densely populated communities. The study concluded that there are potential benefits to operating a combined passenger and parcel delivery system. Pooling passenger and parcel delivery can deliver economic benefits across the combined operation when the delivery of parcels is concentrated into local delivery points using a single visiting vehicle that also serves as passenger collection/drop-off points.

The potential cost savings of the shared transport solution have been calculated at 25%. However, many more societal benefits were not quantified in this work. SOAST also has significant potential for decarbonising transport.

The Network Planning Tool for Scotland (NPT) is a data-led strategic cycle network planning tool jointly developed by Sustrans Scotland and the University of Leeds, with funding from Transport Scotland. The NPT estimates the relative demand for cycle journeys on all streets and paths in Scotland, displayed on a map-based interface. Analysis is based on the distribution of everyday journeys (e.g., to work, school, shopping) that are of a cyclable distance.

The tool enables local authorities to identify the most impactful locations for new cycling infrastructure and develop coherent cycle network plans in an evidence-led way, maximising usage and ultimately facilitating the modal shift to cycling. It also supports the transparent prioritisation of public funding for new cycle infrastructure by Local Authorities and Transport Scotland. The NPT is free to use and accessible via the web.

After a single year of development, the tool has already revolutionised the quality of the cycle network planning evidence available to Transport Scotland, Sustrans, Local Authorities, consultants, stakeholders, campaigners, and the public. The tool has supported the development of robust, evidence-based Active Travel Strategies and cycle network plans for several key local authorities and Regional Transport Partnerships (RTPs) across Scotland, including:

– Edinburgh’s Active Travel Action Plan (CEC)
– North East Regional Active Travel Network (Nestrans)
– Tayside Regional Active Travel Network (Tactran)
– West Lothian’s 2022-27 Active Travel Plan (WLC)

The tool is now routinely used internally within Sustrans Scotland to evaluate the likely use and impact of new schemes seeking design and construction funding from the Places For Everyone infrastructure fund.